The Pleasure of Black Folk: Empowerment through Sex Education

Oppressive structures and stereotypes about the Black body and sexuality have limited and negatively impacted Black people and their sexual agency. For some Black people, sexual autonomy, pleasure, and discovery are foreign, unmentionable, and rejected. This is evident as one observes the Black female experience with masturbation and the Black male’s relationship with anal play. As current sex education models focus either on abstinence or sexual health, learners are not empowered to have sexual agency. Pleasure based sex education models provide accurate information about sexuality, sexual acts, and body positivity; and increase sexual self-agency. This panel will explore Black sexual empowerment through discussing masturbation, anal play, and pleasured based models.